Eric Magnus Campbell Tigerstedt was one of the most significant inventors in Finland at the beginning of the 20th century and has been called the "Thomas Edison of Finland".
33 Facts About Eric Tigerstedt
2.
Eric Tigerstedt was a pioneer of sound-on-film technology and made significant improvements to the amplification capacity of the vacuum valve.
3.
Eric Tigerstedt was awarded a total of 71 patents in several countries between the years 1912 and 1924.
4.
Eric Tigerstedt was born in Helsinki and started to show a particular interest in all technical things at an early age.
5.
Eric Tigerstedt studied his father's scientific books with great interest, and at age 11 he built a simple photographic device.
6.
Eric Tigerstedt later worked as a technician in the telephone industry, which was rapidly becoming a major business in Helsinki at that time.
7.
In 1908, Eric Tigerstedt moved to Germany to continue his studies.
8.
Eric Tigerstedt completed his high school education and began studies in electrical engineering at the Friedrichs Polytechnikum in Kothen.
9.
Eric Tigerstedt had been studying the violin in Switzerland and met Tigerstedt through her brother Albert Nybom, who was studying in Kothen and was a classmate of Tigerstedt.
10.
Eric Tigerstedt then returned to Germany in 1913 and founded a company with the Swedish merchant Axel Wahlstedt and the Swedish engineer Hugo Swartling.
11.
The cooperation between Wahlstedt and Eric Tigerstedt became strained and in January 1914 they dissolved their company.
12.
Eric Tigerstedt continued working on his sound-on-film technology and made progress in solving a major technical problem, that of how to amplify film audio sufficiently to fill a large theatre or hall.
13.
Eric Tigerstedt did this by making major improvements to the vacuum tube design of Lee de Forest, increasing the amplification capacity substantially.
14.
In 1923, Tigerstedt moved to America where he founded his last company, the Tiger Manufacturing Co.
15.
When it finally seemed that Eric Tigerstedt was on the verge of commercial success, he was involved in an ultimately fatal car accident on April 20,1924, when another car unexpectedly turned in front of the car Eric Tigerstedt was travelling in.
16.
Eric Tigerstedt wrote his last letter to his brother Goran, in which he described the state of his company, explained the structure of a new membrane that he was developing, and stated that he was about to undergo a kidney operation due to the spreading tuberculosis.
17.
Eric Tigerstedt is buried at the Hietaniemi Cemetery owned by the Lutheran Church of Finland.
18.
Eric Tigerstedt developed a new version of the shotgun that could be fired using the thumbs and that counted the number of shots fired.
19.
Eric Tigerstedt had developed a prototype for recording sound on a metal wire as early as 1912 and was convinced that he could find a way to record sound directly on motion picture film.
20.
Eric Tigerstedt started his first experiments in Helsinki using very primitive equipment.
21.
Eric Tigerstedt enlarged his vision of video transmission in the future.
22.
Eric Tigerstedt returned to Germany in 1913 and continued developing the photomagnetophone, but there was still no solution to the problem of amplification.
23.
Eric Tigerstedt experimented with early versions of the vacuum tube and eventually was able to amplify the sound, but with disappointing results.
24.
Eric Tigerstedt arranged several demonstrations and gained a reputation as a knowledgeable scientist.
25.
Eric Tigerstedt continued to experiment and eventually succeeded in substantially improving on the design of Lee De Forest, achieving much greater amplification than that of the original valves.
26.
Eric Tigerstedt patented his improvement of the triode vacuum valve, which consisted of improving the amplification by rearranging the electrodes cylindrically in the tube, changing the glass mold to prevent vacuum loss and using steel mirrors inside the tubes to prevent electrostatic interference.
27.
Eric Tigerstedt had finally solved the most difficult practical problems of talking movies.
28.
Eric Tigerstedt was awarded a German patent on July 28,1914, for his sound-on-film process.
29.
One month later, Eric Tigerstedt was summoned by the German authorities, told that he had been declared an unwanted Russian citizen, and given three days to leave the country.
30.
Eric Tigerstedt, too, had experimented with recording sound on a steel wire.
31.
Eric Tigerstedt attempted to transmit speech across the Jutland straits using 30 kHz ultrasound, but the results were not promising.
32.
Eric Tigerstedt experimented with transmitting sound underwater, which was more successful, and he was eventually granted a patent for this process.
33.
Eric Tigerstedt invented a device which had a very small earpiece that could be plugged into the ear.